1-4th Nov 2007

NONKILLING LEADERSHIP AND THE GLOBAL CONDITION
(Mairead Maguire’s Presentation to First Global Nonkilling Leadership Forum, Hawaii)

My dear friends,

What a great joy to be with you at this gathering of friends. We came here to spend a few days together building friendships and solidarity with each other in our great task of helping to build a world of nonkilling, justice and love. This is a rather large task, but we are not alone in this work. A world of love, compassion, forgiveness and nonkilling is also, I believe, the Creator’s vision for all of humanity. It is also the dream deep in the hearts of every human being, to be happy, to love and be loved, and to be part of what Martin Luther King called ‘the beloved community’.

But how to build such a world: Ah, that is the question? When our dear friend, and brother, Glenn Paige, asks the question ‘Is a Nonkilling World possible”? in his wonderful book ‘Nonkilling Global Political Science’(l) we answer ‘Yes, ‘ and add our own question ‘How do we build a Nonkilling World? Indeed how do we build a World without violence?’.

Changing from a World situation where there is a great deal of violence, to one of nonkilling will take time. We must be patient and admit our shared vision of a nonkilling world, may not be fulfilled in our own life time. Like Martin Luther King we have seen the mountain, and we may not get there, but if we join together and work hard enough, our children and our children’s children will get there. With that thought we dedicate our lives to the joyful purpose of rebuilding our World in the image and likeness of the Creator’s – one of beauty and celebration of life and all of creation.

To create a nonkilling culture we start from our own inner conviction that every human life is sacred and we daily cultivate within ourselves, a deep reverence for all life and creation. The more deeply conscious we become of our own gift of life and the presence of this mysterious love, the deeper our love, compassion, and respect for others, including our enemies, becomes (indeed we loose this whole concept of enemy)! This practice of reflection of the gift of life and consciousness, also awakens our inherited sense of justice, and we come more aware of injustices against others, of our part willingly or unwillingly in such injustice, and our responsibly to act justly and choose wisely, as we know every act has its consequence. When we think deeply about the mystery and magnificence of our own gift of existence, we become more aware of the gift of choice. Millions of choices, some small, some not so small! But the most profound choice for each of us to make is ‘to choose to live or to die, to kill or not to kill’? that is the real question. So a Nonkilling world starts in our own minds, when we can choose to disarm our mindsets of violence, militarism, and war, and use the alternatives of nonviolence open to us. We can choose also to live fully alive, and be happy, in the present moment gifted to us. This is both a spiritual and a political choice and it is a personal and a community one, as we commit ourselves to the nonviolent service of others.

I believe though in our passion for nonviolence, we must have the most profound humility and respect for others right to choose their own paths, remembering that the spark of divinity lives in every heart, and none of us have a monopoly on truth. We must not make false divisions between ‘nonviolent believers’ and ‘unbelievers’. We are the human family, interconnected, inter-dependent, and we need to work together, no matter what our differences, to the common goal of building a more just and humane world for all. We are faced with many threats to our very survival, both the animal and human world, and these can only be overcome by building strong bonds of friendship and co-operation at all levels of society and across our world. We are challenged to build vibrant active nonkilling democracies from the local community upwards and at the same time across the cosmos. New organizations, new institutions, new ways of identifying and solving problems, and sharing resources, must be sought and shared, as this new consciousness of humanity and our mother earth evolves. An ethical, value based code of conduct, which we can all share is needed and the principal of love one another and do not kill is, I believe, one that can touch all our hearts. We can take encouragement too from the inspirational commitment from the Worlds Great faiths to uphold the Golden Rule ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you’. What great responsibility the Worlds many Faith traditions carry in helping things change and to building a nonkilling, nonviolent world!

And change can come about if we speak and act at a heart level. In today’s world climate, of feeding of peoples’ fear by some Political Leaders and some Corporate Media, many people feel isolated, vulnerable, afraid and powerless. That is why we need as a human family to reach out to each other in friendship and love. We must also challenge those in Political/Spiritual/Education/Media leaderships who seek to divide and segregate us. Terms like ‘Clash of Civilizations’ ‘For or Against Us’ ‘Evil Empire’ ‘Rogue States’ have no truth or foundation and are feeding fear and insecurity everywhere. The culture of demonization of certain Countries and Leaders, and their Spiritual/political traditions, must be challenged by those of us who are committed to truth telling. We must have the courage to speak truth to power, when that power becomes murderous, as we have seen with the USA/UK invasion and occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, the Soviet Unions’ Military abuse of power in Chechnya, and Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine, to mention but a few of the gross abuses of human rights, including torture, carried out by some of the World Governments. We must insist on our Governments, speaking to Representatives of armed group in order to deal with their grievances (as the British Government spoke to the Irish Republic Army to solve the Northern Ireland conflict). There are always alternatives to Violence, Militarism, and War and we must insist our World Goverments’ and Leaders use these alterative methods open to them. So too with those who would take up ‘armed struggles’ revolution, insurgency groups, whilst we uphold their right to nonviolent civil disobedience and nonviolent resistence to injustice, we must insist that they have no right to kill or harm people, and they too should enter into dialogue to solves their grievances. No injustice or grievances is worth the taking of peoples lives by either Governments or insurgency/armed groups.

Dialogue in conflict resolution, does work, indeed as has been proven in Northern Ireland, Militarism, and paramilitarism, feed a deadly cycle, and only dialogue can break this. In building a NK/NV society our language and communication skills become very important, as when we refuse to allow weapons and armies to be described as instruments of peacemaking, our alternative tools are deep listening and unconditional dialogue, and we must develop our skills and alternatives to violence, so they are effective and life changing. Alternatives, such as the very excellent Movement, Nonviolent Peaceforce, need our support and encouragement, as they prepare unarmed peace workers for conflict zones, as alternatives to armed intervention. Education will be an important vehicle for creating a new Culture of nonkilling, and the Nobel Peace Laureates and UN Decade for a Culture of peace and nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001-2010) continues to bear fruits in many innovative peace education programmes. I was so excited to see recently on TV a programme showing Teachers in Primary school teaching young children how to understand and deal with their emotions, of anger, fear, etc., Overcoming our fear (of ethnic anniliation, embarrassment, death) will be our greatest challenge as we develop a nonkilling culture.

Another hopeful development took place in Rome last year, at the Gorbachev Conference, when the Charter for a World without Violence (2) was adopted by 20 Nobel Peace Laureates and Organizations, and supported by many others. This Charter will be formally launched in December in Rome. It sets out Principals which I believe, we as humankind will find speaks to many of our hearts and minds as values we can identify with and own. It gives voice to the need to respect every human being and the environment, uphold human rights and International Law, and sets out the vision of a world without violence. It is hoped this Charter will be supported by Youth, Civil Society, NGO Governments, Faith traditions, and will add to the many other Charters, Treaties and International Legal Agreements, which help us as humankind to build a foundation of justice and peace for all. The First Parliament in the world to adopt the Charter, together with the Proposal for a Governmental Ministry of Peace, was Calabria, in Italy. I would like to propose that this Forum also support this Charter as I believe it will prove valuable in encouraging our Governments, and others, to seek alternatives to violence in their Policies and programmes. I believe too that the growing movement to encourage Governments to set up Ministries of Peace (about which you will hear from other speakers involved directly with this) will gives great encouragement to us all. Another hopeful sign is the recognition by many World Bodies, that violence is a health issues. The WHO has said ‘Violence is a preventable disease’ and these words give hope to us all, that violence is not inevitable, we can each do something to prevent it. Governments are elected to provide peace and human security for their people. Can they say they are succeeding when the incidents of mental health, in every country in the world is increasing. Depression (children as young as 7) Suicide (one a day in some countries) What Policies, and funding, are in place to deal with such sad and tragic signs of hopelessness and despair? Do their policies of War, Nuclear Weapons, Arms deals, Invasion and occupations, and the violence of counterinsurgency groups, shown every day on television screens beamed into homes around the world, not create climates of fear, powerlessness,depression, and desensitation of children to cruelty and violence, all methods they are unconsciously picking up as allegedly ‘normal’ ways of behaviour? How much we need those important pillars of society, Faith traditions/ Governments/ Media/Education/Arts to help articulate and give voice to alternatives, which give confidence and empower people to believe in themselves,build strong communities of support, and have hope for their future.

I applaud and congratulate the many in these Bodies who are already doing a great deal to bring about political and social change. In my travels I have been inspired by the massive Peoples’ grassroots’ movement around the world. This movement includes groups representing millions of people, and is indeed the real Superpower, which says No to War, and Yes, to Justice and Peace. Their agenda and policies have identified the real and most immediate threats to humanity, such as :

l) Climate Change 2) Increasing Violence and ethnic/political conflicts 3) Poverty and marginalization of the majority of the World 4) Competition over resources 5) Global militarization. They are asking their political leaders, what are you policies on these threats to our survival? This Peoples’ Movement have a vision and agenda for a world of peace and justice, equality and nonviolence. In this work we are united and it is only a matter of time that our political leaders, are forced to change their Policies and begin playing an important role in the building of a culture of world equality and justice.

We all work for that day to come soon, but in the meantime we as individuals are called to be true to our own conscious and live out our own lives nonviolently and with as much truth and integrity as possible.

God Bless you all in your visionary work for a nonkilling world, a world without violence.

Aloha,
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, Hon, President, Peace People, N.Ireland.
November, 2007. www.peacepeople.com

l)’Nonkilling Global Political Science’ Prof.Glenn D. Paige (Orders@Xlibris.com)
(Freely posted on web at www.globalnonviolence.org) It is being translated into 24 languages. Former Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral has advised “This book should be read in every political science department and by the public”. In his introduction to the Russian edition, Prof.William Smirnov, Vice-President of the Russian Political Science Association and the International Political Science Association has written: “The basic idea in this unique book can and should become the basis of common value for humanity in the 2lst Century as well as a programme for their realization.”

2) Nobel Peace Laureates ‘Charter for a world Without Violence’ www.nobelforpeace-summit/charter.